Scandinavian countries are known for their generous social policies and near equal social equality between men and women. According to the World Economic Forum, Sweden is a world leader in equality (http://sweden.se/society/gender-equality-in-sweden/#start). Sweden has consistently been rated among the top four countries globally when it comes to gender equality, ranking behind only Iceland, Norway and Finland. Their Scandinavian neighbor, Denmark, has consistently been ranked lower and there is a gap in the ranking system between Denmark and the rest of the Nordic Countries with the Philippines, Ireland and New Zealand ranking fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively (Zahidi, 2013).
Additionally, academic literature points to differences between Sweden and Denmark when it comes to gender equality and parental leave. There are other global indexes that assess issues surrounding gender equality and women’s rights. However, this research project is based on the Global Gender Gap Report, as opposed to others available. This is because it ranks countries according to gender equality rather than women’s empowerment and it measures how the available resources, opportunities and income are distributed between genders, as opposed to measuring the income and resource level of each specific country.
All four Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark, have closed over 80% of the gender gap. As Haas and Rostgaard point out, an equal division of parental leave between mothers and fathers is often seen as the basis of gender equality (Haas and Rostgaard, 2011). Therefore, this paper will focus on parental leave policies in Denmark and Sweden as the primary marker of equity between genders. The goal of this paper is to compare the government approach to gender equality between the two Scandinavian neighbors, Denmark and Sweden and to answer the question of why Sweden has scored consistently higher than Denmark and is in-line with the rest of the Nordic countries vis-à-vis gender equality as defined by the Global Gender Gap Reports.
